Dirty Work (album)

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Dirty Work
Studio album by The Rolling Stones
Released	24 March 1986
Recorded	8 April - 17 June 1985, 16 July - 17 August 1985
Genre	Rock
Length	40:03
Label	Rolling Stones/Virgin
Producer	Steve Lillywhite and The Glimmer Twins
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Rolling Stone (not rated) link Robert Christgau (A) link
The Rolling Stones chronology
Rewind (1971-1984) (1984) Dirty Work (1986) Steel Wheels (1989)

Dirty Work is The Rolling Stones' 18th studio album (or the 21st, counting their US releases). It was released on March 24, 1986 on the Rolling and Stones label by CBS Records. Produced by Steve Lillywhite, the album was recorded during a period when relations between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards soured considerably,^{[citation needed]} and is often regarded as a low point for the band.^[1]

The album produced a hit for the Rolling Stones - their cover of "Harlem Shuffle" - and features a number of guest appearances, including contributions by Tom Waits, Jimmy Page, Patti Scialfa and Bobby Womack.

Dirty Work was remastered and reissued by Virgin Records in 1994.

[edit] Recording

The sessions for Dirty Work, the first album under the Rolling Stones' recording contract with CBS Records, began in April 1985 in Paris, running for two months before breaking for a short spell.^[2] Mick Jagger had just released his first solo album, She's the Boss, much to Richards' annoyance, since the latter's first priority was The Rolling Stones and he was stung that Jagger was pursuing a career as a pop star.^{[citation needed]} Jagger was often absent from the Dirty Work sessions while Richards recorded with Ronnie Wood, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts; Jagger's vocal parts were added later on.^{[citation needed]} The divide between Jagger and Richards was on public view on July 13, 1985, when Jagger performed a solo set at Live Aid while Richards and Wood supported Bob Dylan's set on acoustic guitars.

Charlie Watts' involvement in the recording sessions was also limited: in 1993 Watts told Ed Bradley on 60 Minutes that during the 1980s he had been addicted to heroin as well as alcohol, and that this is why replacement drummers are credited on both Undercover and Dirty Work. Steve Jordan and Anton Fig do the drumming on some tracks; Ronnie Wood takes over the sticks on "Sleep Tonight". Jagger would later cite Watts' personal state as one of the reasons he vetoed a tour in support of Dirty Work in 1986, preferring to start work on his second album, Primitive Cool.^{[citation needed]}

Four of the album's eight original compositions are credited to Jagger/Richards/Wood and one to Jagger/Richards/Chuck Leavell. Only three are credited to Jagger/Richards, the lowest number since on any Rolling Stones album since Out of Our Heads (1965). Dirty Work is the first Rolling Stones record to feature two tracks with Richards singing lead vocals ("Too Rude" and "Sleep Tonight").

Following a further month of final recording in July and August 1985 (which saw guest appearances by Jimmy Page, Bobby Womack and Tom Waits), co-producer Steve Lillywhite supervised several weeks of mixing and the creation of 12 inch remixes. On December 12, Ian Stewart - one of the founding members of the Rolling Stones and their longtime pianist and road manager - died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 47. In remembrance of their friend, a hidden track of Stewart playing Big Bill Broonzy's "Key to the Highway" was added to close the album.

In March 1986, The Rolling Stones' cover of "Harlem Shuffle" (their first lead single from a studio album not to be a Jagger/Richards original since the earliest days of the band) was released to a receptive audience, reaching #13 in the UK and #5 in the US, though it did not receive the same amount of exposure as previous hits.^{[citation needed]} The follow-up single "One Hit (to the Body)" was a Top 30 hit and featured a revealing video of Jagger and Richards seeming to trade blows.

[edit] Reception

Dirty Work was released a week after "Harlem Shuffle", reaching #4 in the UK and the US (going platinum there), but the critical reaction was less than enthusiastic.^{[citation needed]} Some reviewers felt the album was slight in places, with weak, generic songwriting from Richards and Wood and puzzlingly abrasive vocals from Jagger.^[who?] Some felt Jagger was saving his best material for his solo records, though the critical reaction to those releases was muted as well.^{[citation needed]} Dirty Work's critical standing has not improved over the years, in part because it lacks any notable hits, and in part because of the plastic, recognizably mid-80s production.^{[citation needed]} To this day, the album is regarded by some as perhaps the weakest Rolling Stones record.^[1]

However, in 1986 Robert Christgau called Dirty Work "a bracing and even challenging record [which] innovates without kowtowing to multi-platinum fashion or half-assed pretension. It's honest and makes you like it." ^[3] In 2004 Stylus Magazine's "On Second Thoughts" feature assessed the album as "a tattered, embarrassed triumph, by far the most interesting Stones album since Some Girls at every level: lyrical, conceptual, instrumental."^[4] The re-evaluation of the album finds that despite its 80s-style production, the album features "the most venomous guitar sound of the Stones’ career, and Jagger’s most committed vocals."^[4]

[edit] Artwork and packaging

Breaking with Rolling Stones tradition, Dirty Work was the first of their studio albums to contain a lyric sheet in the U.S., apparently at the insistence of CBS Records,^{[citation needed]} who also pushed for the atypical colorful band-photo cover.^{[citation needed]} The album was also noteworthy as the first major release to be issued simultaneously on compact disc.

[edit] Track listing

1. "One Hit (to the Body)" (Jagger/Richards/Wood) – 4:44
   • Featuring Jimmy Page on guitar, and Patti Scialfa and Bobby Womack on backing vocals
2. "Fight" (Jagger/Richards/Wood) – 3:09
3. "Harlem Shuffle" (Bob Relf/Ernest Nelson) – 3:24
   • Featuring Bobby Womack and Tom Waits on backing vocals
4. "Hold Back" (Jagger/Richards) – 3:53
5. "Too Rude" (Lydon Roberts) – 3:11
6. "Winning Ugly" (Jagger/Richards) – 4:32
7. "Back to Zero" (Jagger/Richards/Leavell) – 4:00
   • Featuring Bobby Womack on guitar
8. "Dirty Work" (Jagger/Richards/Wood) – 3:53
9. "Had It with You" (Jagger/Richards/Wood) – 3:19
10. "Sleep Tonight" (Jagger/Richards) – 5:11
    • Featuring Tom Waits on piano^{[citation needed]}
11. "Key to the Highway" (Big Bill Broonzy/Charles Segar) – 0:33
    • A hidden and uncredited recording performed by Ian Stewart, who died on 12 December 1985 just following Dirty Work's completion

[edit] Personnel

• Mick Jagger - Vocals, Backing Vocals, Harmonica
• Keith Richards - Electric Guitar, Backing Vocals, Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Piano
• Charlie Watts - Drums
• Ronnie Wood - Electric Guitar, Backing Vocals, Bass, Acoustic Guitar, Pedal Steel Guitar, Drums, Tenor Saxophone
• Bill Wyman - Bass, Synthesizer

• Jimmy Cliff - Backing Vocals
• Dan Collette - Trumpet
• Don Covay - Backing Vocals
• Beverly D'Angelo - Backing Vocals
• Anton Fig - Shakers
• Chuck Leavell - Keyboards
• Kirsty MacColl - Backing Vocals
• Dollette McDonald - Backing Vocals
• Ivan Neville - Backing Vocals, Bass, Organ, Synthesizer
• Jimmy Page - Electric Guitar
• Janice Pendarvis - Backing Vocals
• Patti Scialfa - Backing Vocals
• Ian Stewart - Piano
• Tom Waits - Backing Vocals, Piano^{[citation needed]}
• Bobby Womack - Backing Vocals, Electric Guitar

[edit] Charts

Album

Singles

[edit] External links

• Dirty Work on the Rolling Stones' official website

[edit] Notes